Waiting On the Thunder
by byebyebirdie58
Summary: As Ponyboy enters college, he must learn how to deal with college, friends and girlfriends while coming to terms with his brother's death in Vietnam. Will he be able to handle it all, or will things come crashing down on him?


We do not own the characters in The Outsiders or That Was Then, This is Now by S.E. Hinton, nor do we own the song, _Night Moves_, written by Bob Seger, and performed by Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band. Enjoy. =)

Also, the one-shot "First Impressions" shows Ponyboy's very first day at university and ties into this fic. In addition this fic ties in very loosely with the stories "Day to Day" and "Intervention", though you needn't be familiar with either to understand this one.

* * *

_I awoke last night to the sound of thunder  
How far off I sat and wondered  
Started humming a song from 1962  
Ain't it funny how the night moves  
When you just don't seem to have as much to lose_

Ponyboy stood in line among what seemed like thousands of other people outside the Registrar's Office. Even though he'd heard about what the freshman college experience was like, it was still quite overwhelming. His main concern was that all his classes would be full and he wouldn't be able to get _any_ course at all, though he had specially express-mailed his registration paperwork well before the deadline for out-of-city residents.

Soon enough, though, his time came up and he stood in front of the fairly attractive lady at the Registrar's desk handling the schedule distribution. She asked him for identification, then looked at him sharply for a moment, examined his driver's license, and said, "Kind of young to be starting university, Mister, uh, Ponyboy Curtis."

"Got my acceptance papers right here and my high school graduation diploma if you want to see 'em," Ponyboy said, waving his folio. He'd been warned about that possibility by the guidance counselor at school back in June.

The woman gave his paperwork a cursory look, then returned the folio to him, along with his schedule. He noted with disappointment that his sociology 101 had been disallowed because of a conflict with freshman chemistry.

Deciding it couldn't hurt, Ponyboy tried putting on his best smile, caught the woman's eye, and winked. "Don't suppose I could get a little help with figuring out all of these conflicting courses, ma'am?"

That forced the ghost of a smile from her, and she replied smoothly, "I like my men to be a little closer to my own age before messin' with their schedules. Have a nice day."

Ponyboy felt his neck turn red and he wondered what on Earth he had been thinking. He mumbled, "Sorry," and turned away hastily, not wanting to hinder the next student in line.

Outside the Registrar's, he saw students handing out campus maps. After getting one, he noticed the sheer size of the sprawling campus and wondered how he'd ever make it from one class to another and be on time.

He examined the map a little more closely and saw the Student Union building labeled on it. Deciding to go check it out, he went in that direction.

After some minutes of walking, he reached the Student Union building and went inside. He noticed a couple of places that looked inviting. One was called the '4Our Student Lounge', and the other, the 'Union Grill'. Deciding to go into the lounge, he saw some billiards tables and his mouth quirked in remembrance of Bryon and Mark, those two teenage hustlers who managed to take strangers at Charlie's for a few bucks apiece. Recalling some of the tricks of the trade, he was about to grab a cue stick when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

He turned his head, slightly startled, and relaxed when he saw it was Davey, his roommate. Ponyboy said, "Hey, how'd registration turn out for you? I lost soc one-oh-one 'cause of a conflict."

"Got all my courses, uh..." Davey snapped his fingers.

"Ponyboy," Ponyboy supplied.

Apologetically, Davey said, "Ugh. God, how could I forget that? Sorry. Anyway, yeah. Got all my courses. Sociology, Psychology, English and History."

"Nice. I'm in psych. Are we in the same class?"

The two of them discussed and traded their schedules, and it turned out that they were indeed in the same class. Davey joked, "Hey, now we can copy off each other."

"Yeah, right. Anyway, you play billiards or pool?"

"Um, neither, really. You know how, I guess."

Ponyboy waved his cue stick. "Sure do. Coupla hustlers from high school showed me how. Grab a cue stick and let's play pool."

Davey laughed and smiled. "Only if you don't steal any money from me."

Pony grinned mock-evilly, and they began playing.

He noticed that Davey appeared to be fairly strong for a hippie; by contrast, the hippies he'd been around, like the ones Mark had bragged about jumping, seemed kind of runty. Though Randy Adderson also didn't fit the generalization, either.

The pool game went on for some time as Ponyboy got Davey up to speed, explaining how to bank his shots and pull off some tricks, such as making the cue ball follow a curved path.

About midway through their first game, Davey said, "Hey, where're you from?"

"Oh, from Tulsa. You?"

"Oklahoma City. But I didn't want to drive here every day, so that's why we've got a room together. Say, you look kind of young to be going here. No offense, that is."

Ponyboy winced a little. "Yeah. I got put up a year in school. I'm only seventeen."

Davey whistled, then lined up his shot and sank a ball. He smirked and got ready for the next one.

Later on, during their second game, Davey was across the table, watching Ponyboy sink two balls in succession from a well-placed shot. He said, "Hey, we should go line up to pay tuition soon, huh?"

Ponyboy shook his head and stood to survey the table. "I got a full ride this year; I got a partial scholarship from running track at school and the rest from my academics."

Impressed, Davey said, "Cool. My grades weren't so hot, but I managed to get in here. My old man's covering me this year, but I still have to drop off the actual check."

Pony tried to keep away a hint of a frown, the strange dislike he'd felt for Davey coming back. He remembered liking Randy a lot, actually. But there was still that resentment that, even after Randy had shunned his old life, he'd formerly treated Pony like shit. That no matter how many times Randy Adderson fucked up, ran in with the wrong people, and got high, his old man would be there with a wad of cash and a nice car to forgive him with. Was Davey the same way?

Deciding to put that aside for now, since it wasn't doing him much good, he checked his watch. "Hey, man, you want to grab something to eat? It's almost two in the afternoon already."

"Sure, yeah."

After finishing their game, putting the cue sticks away and putting the balls back, they went over to the Union Grill and ordered burgers and fries with Cokes. Ponyboy thought maybe later he'd be more adventurous and try the other items on the menu.

He said, "Hey. You know what there is to do around here? I mean, besides billiards and stuff."

"Well, I mostly came here to hang out with some guys and do a little rapping from time to time. But there's always bound to be a rally or teach-in someone's planning. Check the notice boards or just pay attention to the grapevine, I guess."

Ponyboy considered that as he finished his burger and started working on the fries. "Why don't we just go back to our room? I'm still getting used to this place."

Davey nodded enthusiastically. "That's cool, man. I bet there might even be something happening tonight since by now almost everybody should be moved into residence."

After that, the two of them ate industriously, bussed their plates and headed back to the residence hall. On the way there, Ponyboy noticed a sizable fraction of the girls who went to university were quite good-looking, and wished he'd picked up more good tips from Two-Bit.

Though, trying on that wink and smile at the Registrar's Office had been rather dumb, in retrospect.

Davey nudged him. "Keep staring. It ain't gonna get you too far."

Ponyboy looked down at the ground, then laughed at himself. He looked at Davey. "Is it that obvious?"

Davey laughed and looked over at Pony. "Mind if I ask you something?"

"Nah, shoot."

"You ever gotten a girlfriend?"

Pony thought that was a strange question. Then again, Davey was a strange guy. "Yeah. I dated this girl Cathy last year after she broke up with my buddy Bryon. We then broke up, going our separate ways and all. My brothers always had more girlfriends. I remember when Darry was in high school, he'd always have some date or another. What about you?"

Davey grinned. "Yeah, I've had a few."

This didn't surprise Pony, actually. Davey was a pretty good looking guy. He was tall, probably six feet or so, and despite the hair down to his shoulders and a beard that took over his face, he was very good looking.

"I had one girl in high school who was named Chris --"

Pony laughed. "Are you sure she wasn't a guy?"

Davey looked at Pony and laughed. "Well, her name was Christina. Like a nickname, you know? Well, anyway, she was really fun, and I remember this one time, we went out to a football game, 'cause my brother Sean played. Well, we were at the game, and this guy in front of us was sitting there, and he was huge. Sincerely, I don't think I've seen a bigger guy in my life. Well, Sean scored a touchdown and Chris got up and started jumping up and down, and by accident, she kicked this guy in front of us and made him spill his beer." Davey laughed and his eyes seemed to light up as he reenacted the story. "So this fat guy turns around and says to Chris and me, 'You two had better buy me a new beer!' And Chris turned and said to him, 'Well, sir, I'd love to, but I'm sixteen, so I can't. But maybe if you got up and walked your twenty feet to the concession stand, you could. You might even walk off the hotdogs you ate.'"

Ponyboy gaped and laughed. "The girls my friends dated would have probably cussed them out, and, come to think of it, my friends would have probably joined in, too."

"Rough crowd in Tulsa, huh?"

"Yeah. Things have kind of died down, now. We used to have some real fights all the time. Two of my friends--" Ponyboy halted. The memory of Johnny dying could still hurt sometimes. Even Dallas, cold and hard as he was to a lot of people, was just that fraction less guarded around him and his brothers. His loss hurt, too. Lamely, he said, "People died because of those fights."

Davey didn't push. He said, "Well, here's something that's not so much of a downer. My senior year, there was this fox, and I mean _Mata Hari_, you know? Her name was Josephine Anderson."

Before long, Ponyboy was laughing at Davey's attempts to secure a date with the most desirable girl in his high school.

* * *

Back at residence, they killed time listening to some of Davey's records, along with Ponyboy sorting through the books he'd brought with him to university. Around five, a guy with a headband and tie-dyed T-shirt stuck his head in the door, which had been left ajar. Once the guy noticed Davey's attire, he relaxed a bit and said, "Hey. Rap session in the floor's common area. C'mon down when you want to join."

Confused, Ponyboy eyed Davey. "This one of those get-togethers you thought might be happening?"

"Yep. I was here last year with some friends of mine, so don't be surprised if some of the people there are your age. Live a little. Let's go."

All the hippies seemed to have congregated into the residence floor's common area, normally open to all students for any reason. The blinds had been drawn against curious onlookers from outside, and one of the more muscular male hippies stood at the door, barring the way to anyone who looked like they might want to start trouble.

He was looking askance at Ponyboy until Davey said, "He's with me. It's cool, man, even if he _is_ a square."

Ponyboy soon saw why the hippies had taken a few precautions when he caught a whiff of something he hadn't smelled since he'd met Cathy's younger brother's friends. Davey bounded over to a group of three, all female. To Ponyboy's surprise, he recognized one of them. It was Peg!

He sat next to Davey and said, "Hey. I remember you. You came by our room once."

Peg smiled and nodded, saying, "Hi there. Um, Ponyboy, right?"

He grinned. "Yep, and you remembered, unlike this guy here." He shoved Davey's shoulder good-naturedly, eliciting a mock glare.

Peg's eyes seemed to fasten on Ponyboy as she said, "This is Rachel and Hannah. They're on my floor." Rachel had brown hair that was absolutely flat. Ponyboy wondered if girls really _did_ iron their hair; he'd always scoffed at it being just a story. Hannah had very curly black hair, and she was holding what Ponyboy dimly remembered as being a joint.

She held it out to him and said, "Want it?"

Uncomfortably, Ponyboy mumbled, "Uh, no thanks. Sorry."

Hannah laughed and handed it to Davey instead. She put her hand lightly on Ponyboy's shoulder, and said, "It's too bad. You're really cute for a square." She squeezed gently, then released his shoulder and turned her attention to rolling another joint.

Pleased, but a bit unsettled at the sudden frown Peggy got on her face, he relished the touch and the attention. Suddenly, a long-ago snatch of conversation rose in his mind. _"Man, your brother is one doll. I might have guessed you were brothers -- you look alike."_

Cherry Valance had said that, and maybe she was right.

Suddenly, Ponyboy felt a lot better about his prospects for finding dates this year.

* * *

A/N: This fic is being co-written by byebyebirdie58 and Hahukum Konn. Concrit and reviews are welcome and appreciated.


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